b. March 30, 1746, Fuendetodos, Spain--d. April 16, 1828, Goya is considered the 18th Century's foremost painter and etcher of Spanish culture, known for his realistic scenes of battles, bullfights and human corruption. Goya lived during a time of upheaval in Spain that included war with France, the Inquisition, the rule of Napoleon's brother, Joseph, as the King of Spain and, finally, the reign of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII. Experts proclaim these events -- and Goya's deafness as a result of an illness in 1793 -- as central to understanding Goya's work, which frequently depicts human misery in a satiric and sometimes nightmarish fashion. From the 1770s he was a royal court painter for Charles III and Charles IV, and when Bonaparte took the throne in 1809, Goya swore fealty to the new king. When the crown was restored to Spain's Ferdinand VII (1814), Goya, in spite of his earlier allegiance to the French king, was reinstated as royal painter. After 1824 he lived in self-imposed exile in Bordeaux until his death, reportedly because of political differences with Ferdinand. Over his long career he created hundreds of paintings, etchings, and lithographs, among them Maya Clothed and Maya Nude (1798-1800); Caprichos (1799-82); The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808 (1814); Disasters of War (1810-20); and The Black Paintings (1820-23).  Related Paintings of Francisco de goya y Lucientes :. | A Lunatic behind Bars | Third of May | Who Can Think of It | The Holy Family | Maja and Celestina |
Related Artists:
Anders Gustaf Koskull
painted Household Work in 1866
LA HIRE, Laurent de
French Baroque Era Painter, 1606-1656
MEULEN, Adam Frans van der
Flemish painter (b. 1632, Bruxelles, d. 1690, Paris). Flemish painter and draughtsman, active also in France. He was the eldest son of the seven children of Pieter van der Meulen and his second wife Marie van Steen Wegen. He went to study with Pieter Snayers, court painter in Brussels, on 18 May 1646, and in 1651 he became a master in the Brussels painters' guild. Probably soon after he married Catherina Huseweel. During the first 15 years of his career, the so-called Brussels period, he painted small-scale genre and history scenes with political and military events in the Baroque style of Sebastiaen Vrancx, Pieter Snayers and Jan Breughel the elder. Typical examples are a Cavalry Battle (1653; Geneva, Mus. A. & Hist.), a Ceremonial Entry into Brussels (1659; Kassel, Gemeldegal.), a General on Campaign (1660; Madrid, Prado) and a Hunting Scene